“If ther come not speedy recreets from Scotland we will
be obleidged to desert the place as those before us did,
owr provisions ar both scarcer then was expected &
growen very bade, which occasions much sicness unto owr
men.”
Reverend Archibald Stobo

The Darien Scheme was as significant to the history of
Scotland as Oliver Cromwell, The Act of Union of 1707,
the Battle of Culloden, and the Highland Clearances. So
much subscribed money was lost, £300,000 donated by
Scots, that it left Scotland further financially
vulnerable to England at a time when many were already
calling for a union with England.

The vision of The Company of Scotland was to gain
control of the isthmus of Darien, now Panama, and
establish a free port, a Scottish colony, where goods
could be trans-shipped to and from India. The directors
of the Company of Scotland, the greatest proponent being
William Paterson, talked of carrying the cargoes “across
the isthmus from sea to sea by strings of mules, or by
wheeled carriages.” Intended to circumvent the English
Navigation Act that established monopolies and tied the
hands of Scottish merchants in the practice of overseas
trade, and further to release Scotland of its financial
dependence on England, the Darien scheme received
financial support from all strata of Scottish society.

In July 1698, William Paterson set sail from the Port of
Leith along with 1,200 emigrants. The three ships
reached Darien, to be called New Edinburgh, on November
4. The settlers proceeded to fortify the landing place
by installing fifty cannons and erecting what they
called Fort St. Andrew. News of their arrival and
settlement on the isthmus arrived in Edinburgh on March
25 and was widely celebrated.

During the cool seas, the colony flourished. However,
conditions quickly deteriorated when in January 1699, a
vessel with supplies, that was dispatched from the
Clyde, was shipwrecked. Meanwhile, the hot season
arrived along with a host of tropical diseases. With no
new provisions, the colonists began to die of
pestilence. Finally, after months of misery, sickness
and semi-starvation, the remnants of the original 1,200
abandoned the Colony. William Paterson lost his wife and
daughter, and in July 1699, Paterson and other survivors
set sail for Scotland. Half died of fever before
arriving home.

The tragic news did not reach Scotland in time. In June,
1699, four more ships had set sail from Rothsey Bay with
another 1,200 Scots anxious to reach Darien. At least
160 died during the voyage and upon their arrival, they
found the settlement completely deserted. The Rev.
Francis Borland, the only minister destined to return
home, wrote: “What with bad water, salt spoiled
provisions, and absence of medicines, the fort was
indeed like an hospital of sick and dying men.” They
were dying at the rate of sixteen per day.

The Spanish soon arrived and blockaded the harbor, a
well-anticipated reaction to the threat to Spanish
territory. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Scots, after a
valiant defense of more than a fortnight, were forced to
surrender to a superior army and promise “never to
return.” So impressed were the Spanish with the courage
displayed by the Scots, that the Scottish force under
Captain Alexander Campbell of Fonab was allowed to march
under their flags to the beat of their drums. “After
four and a half harrowing months the ships were boarded
and the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the
Indies quit Darien for the final time.”

Misfortune continued to follow. Many died at sea, fever
was rampant, and one ship was wrecked near Jamaica
—“...some 250 died of disease on the other ships on the
voyage between Darien and Jamaica.” How many reached
home is not known, but some say not more than thirty.
Many of those who did survive settled in America.

One of the vessels by the name of The Rising Sun made
for the port of Charleston, South Carolina. They lay at
anchor on Saturday, and the Reverend Archibald Stobo was
invited to leave the ship and preach at the little
church on Sunday. He and his wife and a few others left
the ship for Sunday services and also to buy provisions.
That night a hurricane broke the ship to pieces and all
aboard perished.

In his book The Coming of The Scot by John H. Finley, he
speaks of the Darien experiment. “An American orator,
speaking of this expedition, said that no one eulogized
the heroism of these colonists, their sacrifices and
virtues, ...no poet embalmed their memory in song, no
novelists had taken their records for a fanciful story.
Their mission was a failure.”

“But if we could trace the descendants of those who
ventured their lives in this enterprise...we should
doubtless discover that the failure was not as complete
as it seemed. And there is one descendant in particular,
who centuries later realized the dream of William
Paterson. For the Reverend Archibald and Mrs. Stobo
became the ancestors of Theodore Roosevelt, who had a
major part in building a canal across another part of
that narrow isthmus which William Paterson hoped to
bridge by mules and wheels.”

Details and excerpts for this article are taken from:
The Coming of the Scot, John H. FinleyScotland’s Empire & the Shaping of the Americas 1600 -
1815, T.M. DevineScotland, The Autobiography, Rosemary Goring

Pictured first: William Paterson
Pictured second: Map of the Bay of Caledonia

Scottish Colony

Another event in the history of Scottish immigration to
the United States occurred in December, 1885, when
approximately one hundred Scots arrived in New York City
on the Anchor Line steamer Furnessia. There are some
passenger lists on the Internet for the Furnessia;
however, none is listed for arrivals on December 11,
1885. The small contingent was led by a Dr. Wallace of
Glasgow.

As with many of the immigrants that found their way to
North America, they were in search of fertile land and
felt they had no choice but to leave their homes, mostly
in Paisley, Leeds, Rugland, Blair Athol and Ballinbrig
in the Highlands. Scotland was in the midst of an
agricultural depression — “Rents were too high and the
price of live stock and produce too low.”

The Western states and even California were considered
as potential destinations, though ultimately Florida was
chosen. Prior to departing Scotland, they spent eight
months perfecting their plan to plant “orange groves and
truck gardens.” The immigrants purchased 6,000 acres of
land in Sarasota that was to be divided into plots of 40
acres each, allowing the colonists to purchase as much
acreage as they pleased.

Land negotiations from a distance required a level of
trust and the immigrants were comfortable that the
purchased land was that which was presented to them by
representatives in New York and Florida. As well, the
purchase was negotiated by Tait of Edinburgh, “a man of
large colonial experience,” and a person with which they
felt confident in his representations.

By the year 1900, Bertha Palmer, a Chicago Scot, had
purchased 90,000 acres in Sarasota and had made it a
winter destination for wealthy families. Unfortunately,
the settlement of the Furnessia Scottish Colonists, who
had their eyes set on Florida, is unclear. We can be
assured, however, of their initial opinion of this great
country — “All were delighted with their first
impressions of America.”

There once was a society called “The Highland
Association.” Our story starts with a meeting, innocent
enough, on November 14, 1873, at the Scotch Church. The
location at Sangamon and Adams Street was well chosen, a
congregation strong and vibrant, an ideal beginning to
build unity and support. Their purpose was valiant — the
“cultivation of the language, poetry, and music and the
preservation of the traditions, legends, and literature
of the Highlands...”

For many years the members were dedicated to preserving
an imprint of Highland culture in Chicago. They
participated in all the city-wide Scottish events, most
especially the Highland games. They did not fail in
their devotion when called upon in 1888 to place a
statue of Robert Burns in Lincoln Park. A meeting was
held at the Grand Pacific hotel to discuss the raising
of a treasury and the Highland Association was
represented. The association was proud when their own,
Mr. McLaine, presented the first subscription in “the
shape of a silver dollar left to him by a former Chicago
Scotchman named James Murray, since emigrated to New
South Wales.” That silver dollar, representative of
their devotion to the cause, was later placed under the
monument in Garfield Park.

Sadly, there were forces at work that brought a fateful
end to a purposeful association. Internal fighting in
1899 resulted with their leader, one A. G. Murray,
indicted on charges of extortion; a sum of $37.00 that
is itself a woeful tale. In 1900, “Irish sympathy for
the Boers and their hostility toward Great Britain”
precipitated the cancellation of the summer Highland
games —“The members declare the Scotch, English, Welsh,
and Canadians are unwilling to assimilate with the
Irish, and express the fear that the picnic would result
in physical encounters.” Committees were appointed to
work for the defeat of democratic candidates urging
pro-Boer affiliations.

The ending was not a happy one and there was no further
mention of the Highland Association in the Chicago Daily
Tribune.

From the Editor

Alister MacDonald of Winnetka, Illinois, has donated
several items to our museum that belonged to his father,
Alexander MacDonald. Included were: a World War I helmet
with a bullet in the side, dog tags #2559519, unit and
shoulder stripes, honorable discharge papers, and
naturalization papers.

Alexander MacDonald was born July 26, 1889 on the Isle
of Lewis in Scotland. He was one year old when his own
father died, and three years old when his family left
Scotland and immigrated to North Dakota. Upon America’s
entry into WWI, he enlisted in the United States Army,
was given his dog tags, unit and shoulder stripes. He
was wounded at Kurth on August 22, 1918 and again at
Argonne on September 23, 1918. The donated war helmet is
notable for the damage on the rim that was received in
combat.

He was honorably discharged, and after the war he
studied architecture at North Dakota State University.
He taught at the Pullman Institute of Technology on
Chicago’s south side. In 1920, he married Rebecca
Reinholt, and together they had four children: Mary
Alice, Roland, Elinore and Alister. He died in 1933 of
cancer that “was related to injuries he received during
the war.”

In a letter dated December 14, 2008, Alister MacDonald
commented that “Alexander MacDonald’s story is one that
bridges the generations from Scotland to America.” We
thank Mr. MacDonald for his loan of the donated items
that help the ISAS better understand and relate to the
experience of first generation immigrants. Per his
request, the donations will be “returned when the
Society no longer desires to hold these items.”